Quail Lane Studios

Ahh, and where can you see this wonderful work?  

   Here, of course, particularly if you buy it.  As a studio we are only 8 years old.  Still, we are already invited to shows throughout the Southwest.  Fall shows:

Sept. 30-Oct. 2 Fry Blvd. Park, Sierra Vista

Oct. 9-10 Saddlebrooke

Oct 15-16 Target Plaza, Oro Valley

Oct 22-23 Riverfront Park, Oro Valley

Oct 28-30 Continental Plaza, Green Valley

Nov 19-20 Golder Ranch, Oro Valley

Dec 3-4 Tangerine & Oracle, Oro Valley

Dec 9-11 Fourth Ave., Tucson

   Spring plans include most of those locations as well as others including Phoenix.  We will  be heading back to  Albuquerque, Indio, Las Vegas, and San Diego--as soon as gas drops back below $1 a gallon.                                  

Who are our artists?

     Sherry Shamroth has always had a connection with the world of art.  As a youngster she would sketch, draw, and paint, winning many local contests.  Moving west in the 1990’s, Sherry opened an art gallery in Reno, Nevada, displaying the works of both local western artists and leading artists worldwide.  With a passion for travel and the outdoors, and a well-developed love of art in its many forms, photographing the world’s outdoor scenic wonders followed naturally.  The discovery of digital photography (digitography) led her to her new career—that of producing exquisite photographs of the world of nature and the outdoors.  Sherry currently lives in Tucson, Arizona, when not traveling the world….

    Laurie Larwood has been practicing photography since Brownie was the name on a camera.  As a teenager, her series on the Eastern Mediterranean was unexpectedly published in a local paper, and that was followed by other photo expeditions in Asia and the Pacific.  Nonetheless, she was never satisfied with the limited results of film photography and never turned toward it as a career until the advent of digital photography.  In the interim she served as a well-known professor of both Psychology and Management, and a top administrator, at universities across the nation.  Laurie is listed in Who's Who.  Now engaging in the art of digitography fulltime at Tucson’s Quail Lane Studios, Laurie is also still Professor Emeritus at University of Nevada, Reno.

What is Quail Lane Studios?

     Yes, there really is a Quail Lane.  We are a little north of Tucson, Arizona...a little east of what we call a river around here, a bit west of the Santa Catalina mountain range, and a little hike from Saguaro National Park and Ironwood national Monument.

     That places us squarely in the middle of something that people around here sometimes refer to as the "cactus forest"...maybe more like a cactus jungle.  We inhabit that jungle together with an assortment of critters that flutter, dig, and howl.  There are several protected species right here outside the studio, and the Audubon Society keeps its preserve a little way down the road.

"Barney"▲

    This is a great location for art and photography.  The mountains are snow-covered in the winter, the river runs occasionally during the monsoons, and the cactus blooms and blooms.  In fact, if you have never seen a cactus bloom, you have missed one of the most marvelous sights ever experienced.  The mountain sheep in the Ironwood are waiting for us right now.

     You already know that we work with outdoor images. Never a flash (even our indoor shots have natural lighting), and never a pink eye to deal with. 

     Of course, the really distinguishing elements of any art are difficult to pin-point.  We personally know many wonderful artists and exciting photographers, and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend the work of any of them.  Each is different and art is partly a matter of taste.  We describe our taste as providing "visual poetry".

     Here's a little more about what we do.  Each work, including our more abstract pieces in Gallery 7, is first based on a high resolution photograph.  Usually the photos are digital.  Other times, we scan from photos in our archive taken well before the advent of digital equipment.

     Once digitized, the image is transformed using a variety of software and the artist's eye.  This work may take up to several months of examination, consideration, and reworking before it reaches perfection.  As many as two dozen types of software may be used for one image.  The nice part about digitography is that the artist can work with the image until it is perfect.

     Each image is individually "framed".  That is, a digital frame is placed around the image, carefully created so as to enhance its depth of feeling.  Sometimes these frames will be rectangular; as often, they follow the active contours of the image itself.  The aim is for twin impact:  beauty and emotional resonance.  You will have to see it for yourself.

    Finally, each work is "aged."  Both of us still have to like the work a year or so later if it is to be released.  That gives us a catalog of unreleased work that we are very willing to regale our friends with--and as often, that we mercilessly delete without any official release.

     Our equipment is simpler in some ways, and much more complex in others than is usually expected.  Of course we use a high resolution state-of-the-art 24 mp, image-stabilized digital camera.  Still, the special lenses are fairly simple...a couple for long shots and a few more for close-up and wide-angle work allowing us to shoot from 7mm to 1200mm. 

     Our software includes Adobe's Photoshop.  Our favorite programs come from elsewhere such as Corel and the many exceptional plug-ins offered by other developers including  OnOne and Nik. 

     The printing equipment includes Epson's fine top of the line archival printers (yes, 4 feet wide!).  Without these and the software we'd still be snapping and fussing.